West Flemish people more victims of phishing and are annoyed by traffic nuisance

The 2021 Security Monitor of the Federal Police is a large-scale population survey that is now in its tenth edition. The previous edition was in 2018. This time almost 100,000 people aged 15 or older participated. In West Flanders, 16,097 people completed the survey.

As in 2018, the Security Monitor 2021 contains four major themes: neighborhood problems, feeling of (un)safety, victimization and police prevention. Our editors highlight a few things that are striking in West Flanders.

Neighborhood problems: traffic nuisance

In their neighbourhood, West Flemings seem to be particularly annoyed by the inappropriate speed of vehicles in the neighborhood (59.42%), illegal dumping and litter (41.95%) and the nuisance caused by heavy traffic (36.11%). It is therefore striking that the only non-traffic-related problem in the top 5: illegal dumping and litter, is in second place. This is also the case for the whole of Belgium.

More than a third also agree that annoying parking in the neighborhood is a problem. The top five neighborhood problems are completed with aggressive traffic behaviour. 31.93 percent indicate that this sometimes pops up in the area.

One fifth of the respondents refer to bicycle theft and home burglaries.

(In)safety feeling

How safe do West Flemish people generally feel? The 2021 Security Monitor shows that 71 percent of West Flemish respondents rarely or never feel unsafe. Only 4.29 percent often feel unsafe. This is especially the case for the youngest age category (15-24 years). The figures are in line with the general figures in Belgium.

Positive news is that barely 6.48 percent of West Flemish people indicate that they have been harassed on the street. This is especially the case for women between the ages of 15 and 24.

Compared to 2018, the sense of security has decreased. 2018 was a historically positive year in this respect. The tightened security measures in response to the terrorist threat may have had something to do with this.

Victim: phishing on the rise

The Security Monitor assesses whether someone has been the victim of a certain criminal act at least once in the past 12 months and whether that person has reported it. This shows that computer crime is the most common.

For example, 41.35 percent say they have been a victim of phishing at least once in the past 12 months, 32.28 percent say they have been a victim of scams via the internet and 7.37 percent of hacking. This can concern both attempts and facts where criminals could effectively obtain bank details or data and/or steal money.

The figures show how ubiquitous computer crime is today and how important it is to continue to focus on prevention and the security of computer systems.

Phishing, internet scams and hacking belong to the category of criminal offenses that are least reported. Not even 1 in five victims report it.

“It is important to lower the threshold for willingness to report, for example by submitting non-urgent declarations via Police-On-Web to further expand and promote it,” the police said.